The present invention relates to web site response measurement tools. More particularly, the present invention relates to tools for collecting and reporting user interaction with and response to a web site on a page-by-page basis.
As computer networking technology continues to advance, many companies are scrambling to take advantage of intranets, extranets and the Internet to provide Web sites containing information about their business, to conduct transactions, and to build relationships. The Internet in particular has become an exciting new electronic marketplace that companies are exploring. A typical web site comprises a plurality of individual web pages linked together in a predetermined topography. Each web page provides specific categorical information. A user navigates through the web site by xe2x80x9cclickingxe2x80x9d on links embedded on the individual Web pages. The web sites typically provide information about the company and its products and/or services and/or are used to conduct transactions, or present advertisements. Web sites can be visited by employees, customers, investors, business partners, prospects and many others.
Employees can be looking for guidance and support information about the company. Customers may be making decisions about whether to do business with a company based on the image presented by the company""s web site or actually conducting business via the Internet. Investors may be assessing the company""s ability to create value based on its web site. Business partners and prospects may be searching for companies that are a good fit for them based on information presented in Internet web sites.
In order to improve the effectiveness of the web as a media, it would be helpful to collect and evaluate user reaction to web sites on a page by page basis. Thus, there is a need for a web site measurement tool for measuring user reaction to web sites through feedback provided by users.
Unique, idiosyncratic, unpredictable and individualized methods of requesting user feedback do not provide the kind of consistent and reliable data needed to properly evaluate a web site. Nor do they result in a consistent, high level of response. Users will typically not employ a response method that they must learn, that requires them to leave the page of interest, that takes an unpredictable length of time or that requests information they are not prepared to divulge.
Furthermore, inconsistent methods of obtaining user feedback prevent web site owners from comparing user reaction across web sites. Capturing feedback data on a web site level, rather than web page level, leads to confusion for users giving feedback as well as for web site owners interpreting the feedback data because definition and context of the data is ambiguous. Thus, there is a need for a web site response measurement tool that captures user reaction feedback data on a page-by-page basis, using a consistent, fast, convenient and predictable method to allow the feedback data to be compared across web pages and web sites throughout the world wide web.
To further increase the value of the user reaction, it is also desirable to associate user demographic information with a user""s reaction feedback data. In this manner, a web site owner can tailor a web site to target a specific market segment by customer demographic. In order to encourage users to provide demographic information, a method for collecting the data that does not require the user to download special collection software or submit their information more than once must be designed.
Once user reaction feedback data is collected, it needs to be organized and reported in a format that is easy to understand and analyze. It is important that the data be presented to the web site owner in a fashion that emphasizes the site topography so that valuable page level data is not obscured. This requires unique navigational tools.
As described above, there is a need for a web site measurement tool that collects user reaction data on a page-by-page basis. Preferably, user demographic data is collected and reported with the user reaction data. The collected data must be reported in an easy-to-understand and analyze format on a page-by-page basis that emphasizes the web site""s topography. Unique online self-serve navigational system linking user feedback to specific site pages and topography would facilitate the owner""s interpretation and understanding of the user feedback data.
These needs and others are satisfied by the web site response measurement tool of the present invention. A web site response measurement tool according to the present invention comprises a user reaction feedback mechanism, means for consistently collecting user response data, means for organizing user response data on a page-by-page basis and means for reporting the user response data on a page-by-page basis and at an aggregate level through a unique online self-serve navigation system linking user feedback to site topography. The present invention also provides a means to collect demographic data for a user and associate it to that user.
The user reaction feedback mechanism is located on one or more web pages on a typical site. This allows a user to rate each page independently. The user reaction feedback mechanism provides a language-independent 5-point rating scale for rating each of the web pages. The user reaction feedback mechanism can further include a user diagnostic feedback mechanism that provides a series of questions designed to obtain user response on a plurality of aspects of each of the web pages. The questions can relate to the user""s reaction to the content, design and usability of each web page.
Preferably, the user reaction feedback mechanism further comprises an icon placed in a specific viewable location on each web page relative to the web browser border. The icon is configured to remain in the viewable location relative to the browser border even as the user scrolls through the web page. The user feedback mechanism is easy-to-use, fact, predictable and consistent across pages and across sites to encourage usage. It may also be placed in the xe2x80x9cmastheadxe2x80x9d area of a site and, thus, viewable from every page.
The web site response measurement tool can further include a user registration system for collecting user demographics information. The means for organizing the data associates the collected user demographics information with the user response data and the means for reporting associates the user demographics information with the user response data.
A self-serve online report is generated by the means for reporting. The report allows web site owners to navigate through their web site following the linked topography of the web site to view the user response data. The report provides a plurality of display pages for displaying the user response data on a page-by-page basis with each of the display pages comprising user response data for a corresponding web page along with links to each of the pages linked from this page.
The means for organizing the data further includes means for quantifying the user reaction data into a standardized measure.